Nee Ebay Policy Invites Identity Theft

[Wade Garrett]

Effective the end of February, all Ebay sellers can no longer get paid via PayPal. Instead, Ebay will deposit the sale proceeds directly into your bank account.

You have to give Ebay your bank routing and account numbers. Makes sense, how else can they give you your money. Not a problem, that's how it's been working with PayPal (who Ebay owns) for many years.

When you logon to your Ebay account to give them your bank info- they tell you that you have to "verify your identity" by giving them your Social Security number and date of birth.

Hell no, I'm not about to give them that info! They don't need it. For one thing, it puts you two thirds of the way to identity theft when their servers are inevitably hacked at some point in the future.

I called Ebay and said the only info PayPal has about me was my bank info and that has been working just fine for over 20 years. The overseas customer no-service rep- who couldn't get his foreign mind around my concern- said they had to have this info or they will "hold" the money I'm owed from any sale until I give them the info.

Nonsense. I guess I won't be selling any more stuff on Ebay.

Too bad- I've been doing it for a long time and have made a lot of money selling off stuff I no longer need or want.

[trader_4]

You have a cite for that? I haven't received a notice. A quick Google seems to show that they might be doing this in UK, but I see nothing about it happening in two weeks here. I do see that they are moving away from PP, so it's probably coming here, but I don't see anything about end of February.

If this in fact is true, I agree it's far from ideal and I don't see the need for them to have your birth date and SS number. I sell some stuff on Ebay too and they do have plenty of other issues there that annoy. Including that as a seller you can't leave negative feedback and that they generally favor the buyer, regardless of how wrong they are over sellers. I thought it would be a good idea for someone to organize Ebay sellers into a group, charge some annual fee and then represent seller's interests, speaking for a large group, pressuring Ebay to do what seller's want. Another thing that's annoying, have you ever gotten a survey from Ebay asking how they are doing? I've been there 20 years, they don't give a damn.

Another question related to this is what about fees? What are Ebay's fees for handling the money now going to be? If it's less than PP, that would be a plus.

[Dean L. Hoffman]

I think PayPal will still be an option.

[gfretwell]

They are nagging me every day. I am not doing it. In fact all PayPal has is a credit card number, name and address. That card is only used online. I let PayPal carry the balance until I buy something. I am like Wade. Fuck Ebay. I am not giving my R/T number and they certainly are not getting my SS#. I never got far enough into the process for them to ask.

[gfretwell]

Not according to the Email they keep sending me.

FAQ?s:

Why is the way I?m getting paid on eBay changing? We are updating the payments experience on eBay to enhance the buying and selling experience on the marketplace. We believe this is an opportunity to deliver a more seamless experience for both buyers and sellers, while offering a greater choice in payment and payout options.

Is there anything I need to do right now? Please update your account details, including adding your bank account information, by February 14, 2021 to ensure there are no interruptions to your ability to create new listings and avoid potential payout delays. Learn more and get started here.

How are my fees changing? Your eBay selling fees and expenses will be automatically deducted from your earnings before you get paid. The remainder of your earnings will go directly to your bank account, not your PayPal account. You'll no longer have to pay PayPal payment processing fees and no more separate monthly fee payments. Examples of eBay selling fees include: insertion fees, listing upgrades, and store subscription fees.

[Scott Lurndal]

Actually, Ebay sold PayPal in 2015.

[micky]

It's all over the web.

Apparently they spun it off in 2015 or so.

No they don't. They took your word about which paypal account was yours and that's worked for years so why can't they take your word about which bank account is yours.

You could get another bank account just to recieve payments from them but you can't get another ssn or birthday.

There is an ebay newsgroup, but so few people use Usenet these days, that doesn't seem to be the place to organize. Any chance of getting ebay sellers to "go on strike"?

Yes, this says something similar:

page sounds like it was written by ebay.

So they say they are going to give customers choice, but the choice I want is Paypal.

Convert what?

And they are taking away Paypal.

Paypal already has my routing number and they haven't stolen any money yet. (Though they did act incredibly stupid in 2007.)

I'm still going to pay with paypal other places and even if I weren't, they already have my routing number. Why would I want one more place to have it. But

[Wade Garrett]

Hmmm, thanks. I guess my Wall Street Journal subscription lapsed that year :-)

[Wade Garrett]

An email I got from Ebay:

Getting paid on eBay has changed.* eBay now manages the end-to-end selling experience, including payments. This means: ? You get paid directly to your bank account, not your PayPal account, regardless of how the buyer chooses to pay. We will initiate payouts within two business days of payment confirmation. ? Your fees, expenses and charges will be automatically deducted. No more PayPal payments processing fees or separate monthly fee payments! ? Most sellers will pay the same or less than before** Learn more here. Update your account details by February 28, 2021, or your ability to revise or relist existing listings, or create new listings will be disabled.

Please disregard this email if you?ve already updated your account details. Get started ?

FAQ?s: Why is the way I?m getting paid on eBay changing? We are updating the payments experience on eBay to enhance the buying and selling experience on the marketplace. We believe this is an opportunity to deliver a more seamless experience for both buyers and sellers, while offering a greater choice in payment and payout options. Is there anything I need to do right now? Please update your account details, including adding your bank account information, by February 28, 2021 to ensure there are no interruptions to your ability to create new listings and avoid potential payout delays. Once you update your details, you will automatically offer all payment methods to your buyers, and we will initiate payouts within two business days of payment confirmation, regardless of how your buyer chooses to pay. Learn more here. How are my fees changing? Your eBay selling fees and expenses will be automatically deducted from your earnings before you get paid. The remainder of your earnings will go directly to your bank account, not your PayPal account. You?ll no longer have to pay PayPal payment processing fees and no more separate monthly fee payments. Examples of eBay selling fees include: insertion fees, listing upgrades, and shop subscription fees.

*As it relates to funds settlement. **Savings based on annual total sales volumes, and comparisons of (a) prior eBay final value fees plus typical 3rd party payment provider fees, with (b) new eBay final value fees (without any 3rd party processing fees).

[trader_4]

Very strange. You got it, Fretwell got it, but I haven't received it. That last part is what I expected. It seems to be saying that they are going to save sellers something compared to PayPal, maybe, but note the part about "new Ebay final value fees". So ten percent isn't enough, sounds like they are going to raise that to take most of any cost difference between going through PayPal and going through Ebay, so we wind up with little to nothing. Maybe wind up paying more, either now or a year later when they decide to start jacking it up.

[Tekkie©]

On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 09:46:57 -0500, Wade Garrett posted for all of us to digest...

Hmm, not having ever used fleabay are they running a whorehouse?

*Insertion fee*

[Tekkie©]

On Mon, 15 Feb 2021 20:01:06 -0500, [e-mail] posted for all of us to digest...

That's the good old American spirit right there! effm Remember, they are not making changes to help you.

[gfretwell]

Ebay was pushing PayPal when they owned a piece of the action, now they are freezing them out. I am not giving them a bank account unless it is one I only use for Ebay and they certainly are not getting any personal information. I don't even give those weasels a phone number ... at least not mine. Amazon, Facebook, Ebay, AOL and PayPal all ask (for my safety) and I just "X" out of the screen. The next pass they don't ask. I get enough spam phone calls now. I don't need any more.

[micky]

I also read that they are making this change in stages, starting with some people a year ago.

[trader_4]

Update. While I still have not been notified of having to move from Payal on Ebay, I did happen upon some more discussion about it. Looks like I was right, Ebay is lowering the total fee that sellers paid for most transactions, but just a tiny bit. Here is the math:

With PayPal:

10% Final value Ebay fee 2.9% Paypal fee, plus $0.30 (US transactaions) 4.4% Paypal fee, plus some additional country dependent fee (international sale)

New Ebay fees:

12.35% Final value fee

I didn't see anything about additional for international, but maybe there is.

So total fees will go down for most transactions by ~0.65% One negative is if you do a local sale and the seller picks up the item and pays cash. Right now that would just have the 10% Ebay fee, going forward it would jump to 12.35%.

Another change is that the money for a sale will not show up instantly like it does now with PP. Instead there is a 2 day processing delay, maybe longer and then you have a choice as to having the funds go to your bank account at that point or having the funds go once per week. The money going to your bank account is the only option.

Curious that Ebay really hasn't said much about this, like you'd think email messages would have gone out to all buyers and sellers, telling them that these big changes are coming, what to expect, etc. I've still heard nothing. I only learned that it was happening from this thread here. I would think this would hit PP hard, probably 95% of what I use PP for is Ebay.